This talk was recorded at the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania 2017 Conference in Melbourne. You can find out more information about this conference here: http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/oceania-conference/

You can listen to other talks from this conference here.

In order to be notified about future conferences, like/follow ICAS Oceania on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe for email updates from ICAS Oceania.

Talks recorded by Progressive Podcast Australia and Vegan Sci podcast. You can also listen to a recap of the conference on episode 179 of Progressive Podcast Australia.

Below is further information about the talk from the conference booklet, available here: http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/booklet/

Speciesist to the Core: Legal Rights and Rationality

DAN KIDBY

What is it that makes a human, human? This is one of the foundational questions of

Western philosophy and how we choose to answer it has broad implications for our moral, ethical and legal reasoning about personhood and rights.

Philosophers have set out to identify humans (particularly able-bodied, heterosexual, white, cisgender males) as higher beings, different to and separate from other animals, in order to justify human supremacy and dominance.

Humanity has therefore been historically defined in oppositional relation to other animals. Aspects of humanity shared with other animals have been denigrated and denied and

instead human life has been reduced to one uniquely human characteristic. The

characteristic most commonly relied on is ‘rationality’ which provides the foundation for concepts of legal personhood and rights.

Rationality is however a deeply flawed concept. On its own reasoning it is not able to

articulate the clear separation between humans and other animals that it sought to achieve. Recognising this some activist lawyers, like the Nonhuman Rights Project, have seen an opportunity for rationality, and in turn legal personhood and rights, to be

extended to a small number of animal species with higher cognitive functions. These legal arguments have the potential to achieve positive change for a select few species, and a symbolic victory for the animal rights movement.

We must however be mindful of how we relate to these future legal victories; they cannot be seen to legitimate legal rights grounded in rationality. Even if it can accommodate a few more species rationality is speciesist to the core. It was developed in a specific attempt to exclude animals from the moral community. The concept of rationality has also been used to deny equality to women, colonised people and more.

It is essential that we look to redefine what it means to be human, to recognise our animal nature, and to provide alternative theories of rights. Only then can we hope to achieve

justice for all, humans and animals.

                Dan is an activist for human and animal liberation who is currently living in the UK.

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